Friends Never Say Goodbye
by DRUMLINEpaco
Summary: A songfic for a Sandslash I lost long ago...


Disclaimers: Let's just keep this simple. I don't own Pokémon. I own any names in here you don't recognize.  
  
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A/N: I wrote this fic about two years ago. It used to be on fanfiction.net, but I hadn't visited the site for a couple years, and when I went back the other day it wasn't there. I found this on my computer and decided to share it with yall...enjoy.  
  
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Friends Never Say Goodbye   
  
  
[There isn't much I haven't shared with you along the road]  
  
The winds were becoming fiercer. The bitter cold would have been too much to stand, if Tu didn't have her black jacket with her. It was midnight. Tuhsin and Rotichi had long since fallen asleep. Tu was experiencing another inevitable attack of her endless insomnia. She thought of her steadfast companion, Sandytwo...a Sandslash she had been training for a very long time. She took his Pokéball off her belt and just held it. The icy storm was keeping her awake. She wondered if her loyal Sandslash was having any difficulty sleeping. She did not, by any means, want to wake him.  
  
  
[And through it all, there'd always be tomorrow's episode]  
  
She smiled and put the Pokéball back on her belt. Unknown to Tu, it didn't clip correctly, and landed in the freshly fallen powder snow. The wind kicked up and blew it several feet away. This awoke the sleeping Sandytwo. He immediately knew that something was wrong. His Pokéball was upside-down. And he was colder than usual. And when he moved, the Pokéball moved with him. He finally realized that he wasn't on Tu's belt.  
  
  
[Suddenly, that isn't true]  
  
The wind kicked up again and blew Sandytwo's Pokéball into a tree. Sandytwo's first thought was Go!, thinking he was needed for another battle. So he exited his Pokéball, releasing him into the harsh winter of an unknown wood somewhere between Celadon City and Viridian Forest. The ever-growing blizzard beat down upon him unmercifully. He cried out for Tu, confused as to where his beloved trainer was.  
  
  
[There's another avenue]  
  
Tu heard a cry. She immediately sat up from her near-sleep. She looked around, wondering whether or not the cry's source was within view. Needless to say, all she could see was white. A few feet from her, in front, and on either side were a sleeping Tuhsin Hinoarashi and Rotichi Kapow, her sleeping friends. But what made the cry? Did she dream it?  
  
  
[Beckoning the great divide, ask no questions, take no sides]  
  
No...I'm lost...she's lost...I'm lost...Sandytwo looked left and right. No one heard his cry? He called out again, this time louder. Slash...slash...Someone save me...Sandytwo was delirious. He was also miserable. Tears were pouring from his eyes, as a million thoughts dashed through his mind. Maybe she abandoned me and left me to die...no, she wouldn't do that...perhaps I've been stolen...maybe she just dropped the Pokéball...maybe I'm dreaming...  
  
  
[Who's to say who's right or wrong?]  
  
Tu stood up, fist out, looking determined. She did hear a cry. She wasn't imagining things. And the cry belonged to Sandytwo. She knew it. She couldn't be wrong. She knew Sandytwo's call...  
She put her backpack on her sleeping back to ensure that it didn't fly away in the rage of the winter storm. She walked around the snow-covered pine tree and walked pointedly in the direction of Sandytwo, or where she thought he was. She called his name. She refused to lose Sandytwo.  
  
  
[Whose course is braver run?]  
  
Tu! Tu was calling his name! He was saved...Tu would not let him down. Bliss filled the Sandslash's veins as he happily called again. He would stand his place, now. He had to be brave, or Tu would never find him. Just stay. His mind commanded him to stay put. He cried out another time. Where was Tu? He had been so sure he had heard her voice, calling out to him...  
  
  
[Still we are, have always been...will ever be as one]  
  
Two more calls. He can't be far...then why does each call seem farther than the last? No...she slapped herself to keep from being pessimistic. Sandytwo...She turned around to get one of her Gyarados's help. Kix knew Fire Blast, right? When she started to head back a ways, she realizes it couldn't be done. All she could see what glittering, stinging white on every side of her. Another cry from her endangered Pokémon forced her to turn around. She'd have to do this alone. Calling out to Tuhsin and Rotichi was out of the question. They would never hear her in this blizzard.  
  
  
[What is done has been done for the best]  
  
Sandytwo was sure he was going to die, now. I can barely hear her...I can barely move...He closed his eyes and collapsed, letting the wind carry him. His life was flashing before his eyes. He never imagined it would end like this. Without his trainer by his side...  
  
  
[Though the mist in my eyes might suggest]  
  
No more cries. What happened? "Sandytwo, I'm coming!" she shouted. She realized she could hardly hear herself. The storm was worsening, and her fingers and face were numb with cold, and her lips had begun to turn cerulean. Her silver hair and black jacket were her only shields from the bitter and icing cold that was desperately trying to defeat her. That and her desperate need to find her lost Sandslash.  
  
  
[Just a little confusion about what I'd lose]  
  
No...Sandytwo stood up. Tu was still calling him, despite the fact she must be freezing. Tu wouldn't want him to give up. He had to keep going. The Pokémon started to walk towards the 15-year-old's near-silent voice. The wind kicked up and threw him in the other direction. He cried out in panic, far too cold to move. Was this the end? Tu...  
  
  
[But if I started over, I know I would choose]  
  
Sandytwo...Tu heard his voice again...only this time, it was a scared voice...he was in danger. She ran forward, shouting his name repeatedly. This was far too dangerous. She was losing energy, and was ready to collapse. Then she saw a fainted yellow and brown shape up ahead. Sandytwo? She ran as fast as her tired body allowed her to. When she got close enough to him to make out the fact that the shape was, indeed, Sandytwo, she stopped, looking panicked and pale. A cliff was arms' length away from her steadfast Pokémon. "Sandytwo, please, try to come here!" she shouted desperately, falling to her knees, too freezing to continue on.  
  
  
[The same joy, the same sadness, each step of the way]  
  
That's it for me...Sandytwo began to think. He shut his eyes, exhausted, until he heard a shout from very close. A beckoning to come? Tu had come all this way...? He had to try to crawl that direction. He looked up with all the energy he could muster. Tu was on the ground, looking pale. He tried to move, but his aching arms and legs wouldn't let him budge. The wind was unbearable. He was going to fall behind him, he knew it...  
  
  
[That fought me, and taught me that friends never say...]  
  
He was too weak to move...Tu's eyelashes had frozen tears falling from them. She had to continuously brush these icicles away...it made it so difficult to keep her eyes open...  
The tears flowed with every movement. It hurt so much to move...she looked at Sandytwo. The wind was blowing him towards the ever-nearing cliff. She painfully stood up, running the last few yards of space between her and her everlasting companion. She fell very near to him, and used her remaining strength to put both arms on top of him, keeping him from falling.  
  
  
[Never say goodbye, that friends never say goodbye]  
  
Warm! How could anything so cold make him feel so warm? Tu was holding him...he would not fall now. No…the stinging, cold wind slashed at the frozen pair again, pushing them backwards a few feet. Sandytwo's feet were dangling off the cliff. How far was it to the bottom...? He hoped not much...Tu's suffering can't go to waste. He tapped Tu with his nose, making her brush the ice from her eyelashes and pull on his arms. He was moving! But Tu wasn't strong enough…he was slipping now...  
  
  
[Never say goodbye]  
  
Rotichi and Tuhsin had long since been trying to follow Tu. Where was she going? What on earth was she trying to prove by heading out in a snowstorm in the middle of the dark? When they spotted her, they too, were quite frozen. She was…Sandytwo was dangling from a cliff...  
Sandytwo, hold on! Tu thought, lacking almost all thought, and most of her strength. She pulled on Sandslash's arms, but they began to slip. The cruel wind pushed them ever closer to the long fall behind Sandytwo. Rotichi dove to the ground and grabbed Tu's legs…she was about to fall. Rotichi started slipping and screamed, but Tuhsin grabbed her legs and bent his knee near a rock…that was all that was keeping the group from falling to almost certain death.  
Tu's frozen tears fell and broke on Sandytwo's delicate nose. His tears fell below him plummeted into the air below him. She was desperately trying to pull him back up, but her hands and his claws were slippery with ice, and she was out of strength. Sandytwo was at his last breath as it was. "Sandytwo…" Tu whispered. "I love you..."  
The Sandslash closed his eyes as his frozen claws fell from Tu's hands.  
  
  
[Never say goodbye...] 


End file.
